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Senator Gillibrand Visits Syracuse to Talk About Expanding Small Business Loans

Lilianna Pearson
/
WAER News

Senator Gillibrand said today that she has visited all of New York’s counties. She said a need she has seen over and over is a way for small businesses to have better access to capital, specifically micro loans, but business that are just starting out often times don’t have the credit to get loans from the bank.

“Too many entrepreneurs, too many would-be small business owners in our communities are stopped in their tracks when they try to get their first loan from a bank to start their business. And more often than not, the people who lose out are women and minority owned businesses. So, we have to fix this, and there’s really no excuse not to fix this.”

The legislation is called the Microloan Modernization Act and it will help expand the Small Business Administration’s microloan program. The legislation will expand the New York SBA’s microloan program of five to six million dollars and ensure the loans are going to diverse entrepreneurs.

“And so, for example, let’s say there’s a community that maybe has a lender but isn’t doing enough outreach, and so they aren’t finding the businesses that desperately need the capital. This allows some of that money to be used for facilitating those loans, to make sure we’re finding the people who need them and getting them the money they need, and it allows for more money to go to minority-owned businesses.”

Credit Lilianna Pearson / WAER News
/
WAER News
Senator Gillibrand with Darren and Paris Price

Darren Price is the COO of his family owned manufacturing company, Right Price Companies. He said having readily available microloans means he can commit to larger jobs, protect his work force, and continue to grow his company.

 “Having this additional access to capital will take some stress off of us knowing that we’re Right Price Companies, and our price is always the right price, and we deliver on time. So to keep that going, this is going to help us so we can deliver always on time.”

The legislation has not passed yet, but Gillibrand said today that she has bipartisan support in the Capitol.